Freak out.

I watched Tonying together with my friend, Mica, and her friend, Michelle, last October 24, 2012 at the Yuchengco Auditorium at 6:30pm. The moment I stepped out of the elevator on the seventh floor, it shocked me to see that there were a lot of people cramped on the hallway that the line had formed an ‘S’. When it was already 6:25pm, the guards already let us in. Judging from the ticket number of my friend, I bet there were 400 students who watched the play since hers was ticket number 336. While mine was ticket number 67.

I had great expectations on the play since the last time I watched a show from the Harlequin Theatre Guild last year, which was Unang Ulan ng Mayo at the 2nd floor of the Enrique Razon Building, I was really impressed because of the lightning, the sound effects, the actors, and the set design. It was hard to drive your attention away from them when they start performing. They were that good and interesting.

This time, they had a wider stage, bigger props and improved background effects because of technology. This meant that Tonying was a big project for them. It was only that day that I found out that Tonying was performed annually. I heard the chattering of the people behind us that the play was exactly the same as last year. They only came for the incentives. Same goes for Mica. She has already seen the show last year. She wasn’t really paying that much of attention now. Michelle and Mica were watching Juon 1 instead on my phone.

And again, I was not disappointed with the Harlequin Theatre Guild’s presentation.There were a lot of funny scenes that made me laugh hard core. The only thing that needed improvement was the mastery of the lines of the actors. There were actors who made a lot of mistakes pronunciating Filipino words, and somehow, they lost track of what their next line would be. There was also this “kapre” who accidentally dropped his lamp while he was busy smoking his tobacco. I also noticed that the person who played Tonying, whom I bet was still a frosh student, still lacked the confidence to perform infront of everyone, and to make gestures properly. My friend said that last year’s Tonying was actually better. The voice of Tonying and the Musa were also not that captivating to hear when they sing.

The show was supposed to end at 8:30pm, but it was already 9pm and they were still not done yet. I don’t know how it got extended by 30 minutes. I was getting anxious that I told my friends that we had to leave already because my curfew’s only until 10pm. If I didn’t make it by 10, the gates of the subdivision where I live would close; I would be forced to wait for my brother to fetch me in Mcdo at 1am. Good thing I’ve managed to go home at 9:58pm! Talk about luck. Never would I watch another play that would start at 6:30pm.